A meeting was held on 281h August, 2012 at 11:30 AM in the Conference Room, 5th Floor, Sardar Patel Bhavan, New Delhi under the Chairmanship of Shri Sanjay Kothari, Secretary (Pension, AR&PG) with the officials of 15 Departments/Ministries having maximum number of unrevised Pension Payment Orders (PPOs) pertaining to pre-2006 pensioners/Family pensioners. The objective of this meeting was to review the progress made by these Ministries/Departments in the revision of PPOs in respect of pre-2006 pensioners.
2. The list of participants is at Annexure — I.
3. Opening the discussion, Secretary (Pension, AR & PG) said that the areas of concern for this Department were the outstanding cases of pre-2006 pensioners. He felt the cases of pensioners should be dealt with sympathetically emphasizing the fact that all of us would be .pensiorers in future.. He stated Ministries where pendency was quite large and it .was not feasible to clear the pending cases with the existing staff, avenues . for appointment of Consultant may be explored so that the work of revision of pension for pre-2006 pensioners does not suffer.
4. Secretary (Pension, AR & PG) then took up the Ministry-wise figures, starting with Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), which has the largest number of pending cases. The representative of MHA, informed that in pre-1990 cases there are limitations of availability of records and finding out the status whether pensioners are alive and non-receipt of Annexure III. The cases falling under Extraordinary Pension Rules and Liberalized Pension Awards have to be processed manually. Therefore, their clearance may take longer time. Ministry of Home Affairs informed that information contained in Annexure III may not be sufficient in the case of pre-1990 cases. Ministry of Home Affairs also stated that despite publishing an advertisement in the newspapers for getting the missing information with respect to pre-.2006 pensioners, they had not received adequate response to the same. It was further informed that information required for the purpose is not being provided by the _pensioners/family pensioners concerned either. Secretary (Pension, AR & PG) advised them to launch a drive to clear the pending cases.
5. Secretary (Pension & AR &PG) suggested that all Departments should make one more effort to elicit response from pensioners. An advertisement may be posted on. the website of Department of Pension and PW indicating therein to contact DD0s/HOOs in the Departments who are willing to respond to the queries of the pensioners in this regards. Department of Personnel Sr. Training, Department of Financial Services, CBDT, CBEC and D/o Pension & PW were agreeable to putting up an advertisement on the web-site of Department of Pension & PW for the pensioners to provide the information specific to them which is required for revising the cases. In case other Ministries also desire they will also be included. (Action-Ministries desirous of putting up the advertisement)
6. Some of the salient points emerged during the discussions are as under:-
i). CPAO. informed that they liad taken a meeting with the representatives of all Associations of Pensioners4nd requested them to help pensioners to send their information for revision of their PPOs. CPAO also informed that the Department- wise pendency was already available in the web-site which may be referred to by the Ministries/Departments while clearing the cases.
(ii) In cases of family pension, date of birth of the spouse is a mandatory figure. it is informed that in cases where no information is available, instruction about treatment of date of birth as circulated vide Department of Pension & Pensioner Welfare OM No. 38/37/08-P&PW(A), dated 21/05/2009 and No. 1/19/2011- P&PW(E), dated 03/08/2011 (copies enclosed) may he followed. CPAO had raised some queries in this regard recently. A copy of this Department’s ID Note, dated 15/05/2012 in response thereto is also enclosed for information.
A special drive may be undertaken by all Departments to liquidate the pending cases. Efforts should be made to liquidate pre-2006 cases by 31sE December, 2012 and pre-1990 cases by 31st March, 2013. (Action-All Ministries/Departments)
In respect of pre-2006 pensioners, Ministry of Home Affairs agreed to reduce the pendency to less than 5000 by the end of December, 2012. Ministry of Urban Development agreed to reduce the number to 1000 by this period. Ministry of Information & Broadcasting agreed to bring down the pendency to 50%. Other Ministries agreed that pendency figures will be reduced to less than 500 by the end of December, 2012. (Action – all Ministries/Departments)
(v) It was felt that since the pensioners were in direct contact with the Banks, the system of nodal officers in various Banks may be strengthened. In this regard necessary action may be taken by Department of Financial Services. The banks could provide guidelines to the pensioners to approach the concerned Pay & Accounts Officer/HODs concerned for getting their PPOs revised, in such cases which are not yet revised. As the Banks were continuously sending Annexure III in duplicate and at times in triplicate also, it was felt that the Ministries in coordination with PAOs and with the help of CPAO may send pensioners’ specific information to the Banks for the remaining pending cases so that information received from the Banks can be used more fruitfully. The Department of Pension & PW will also place the link of the nodal officers of various banks in their website for the benefit of pensioners. (Action – all Ministries/Departments, CPAO, Department of P&PW, Department of Financial Services)
7. In view of the huge pendency of pre-2006 revision of pension cases, Secretary (Pension, AR & PG) stated that he would be writing to all the Secretaries concerned- asking them to review the pendency regularly. He also asked that various Ministries may include this as an agenda item for the senior officers meeting being held regularly in various Ministries so that the pendency can be reduced to zero.
8. The meeting ended with a vote of thanks to the Chair.
Enclosure: As above.
To see further (Annexures): Click here Source Link
Stay connected with us via Facebook, Google+ or Email Subscription.
Subscribe to Central Government Employee News & Tools by Email [Click Here]
Follow us: Twitter [click here] | Facebook [click here] | Google+ [click here]
Admin
COMMENTS